Wendy Sherman: “it is interesting to spend hours here listening to the exponents of States' rights come here with patronizing lectures…”

“it is interesting to spend hours here listening to the exponents of States' rights come here with patronizing lectures taken out of economics 101 textbooks to tell California what we need. The fact is that electricity is a unique product. You cannot store it, there is no substitute for it, you cannot ship it, there are major barriers to entry. That is why most of the country for the last 75 years has regulated its price. This chart illustrates that we must regulate the price of electricity or there will be a decline in supply. When we deregulated, you see those yellow lines indicating the plants that were closed for maintenance. Roughly 10,000 extra hours, megawatt hours, closed for maintenance. What that really illustrates is that a few out-of-State companies were able to close their plants for maintenance, which means close their plants to maintain an outrageous price for every kilowatt. If you want more supply, you have to limit the gouging. Pass the Waxman amendment.”